A Model for Improved Prediction of Force Coefficients in Grooved Squeeze Film Dampers and Oil Seal Rings

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo Delgado ◽  
Luis San Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Current Model ◽  
Flow Region ◽  
Added Mass ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Fluid Inertia ◽  
Flow Equations ◽  
First Order ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Pressure Fields

Squeeze film damper (SFD) designs typically implement supply grooves to ensure adequate lubricant flow into the film lands. Oil seal rings, of land film clearance c, also incorporate short and shallow grooves (length≤30c,depth≤15c) to reduce cross-coupled stiffnesses, thus promoting dynamic stability without a penalty in increased leakage. However, extensive experimental results in the archival literature demonstrate that grooves do not reduce the force coefficients as much as theory predicts. A common assumption is that deep grooves do not influence a damper or oil seal ring forced response. However, unexpected large added mass coefficients, not adequately predicted, appear to be common in many tested SFD and oil seal configurations. In the case of oil seals, experiments demonstrate that circumferential grooves do reduce cross-coupled stiffnesses but to a lesser extent than predictions would otherwise indicate. A linear fluid inertia bulk-flow model for analysis of the forced response of SFDs and oil seal configurations with multiple grooves is advanced. A perturbation analysis for small amplitude journal motions about a centered position yields zeroth and first-order flow equations at each flow region (lands and grooves). At a groove region, a groove effective depth dη, differing from its actual physical value, is derived from qualitative observations of the laminar flow pattern through annular cavities. The boundary conditions at the inlet and exit planes depend on the actual seal or SFD configuration. Integration of the resulting first-order pressure fields on the journal surface yields the force coefficients (stiffness, damping, and inertia). Current model predictions are in excellent agreement with published test force coefficients for a grooved SFD and a grooved oil seal. The results confirm that large added mass coefficients arise from the flow interactions between the feed/discharge grooves and film lands in the test elements. Furthermore, the predictions, benchmarking experimental data, corroborate that short length inner-land grooves in an oil seal do not isolate the pressure fields of adjacent film lands and hence contribute greatly to the forced response of the mechanical element.

Extended Finite Element Analysis of Journal Bearing Dynamic Forced Performance to Include Fluid Inertia Force Coefficients

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Test Data ◽  
Small Amplitude ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Inertia Force ◽  
Fluid Inertia ◽  
Inertia Effects ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Reaction Forces ◽  
Bearing Stiffness

Reynolds equation governs the generation of hydrodynamic pressure in oil lubricated fluid film bearings. The static and dynamic forced response of a bearing is obtained from integration of the film pressure on the bearing surface. For small amplitude journal motions, a linear analysis represents the fluid film bearing reaction forces as proportional to the journal center displacements and velocity components through four stiffness and four damping coefficients. These force coefficients are integrated into rotor-bearing system structural analysis for prediction of the system stability and the synchronous response to imbalance. Fluid inertia force coefficients, those relating reaction forces to journal center accelerations, are routinely ignored because most oil lubricated bearings operate at relatively low Reynolds numbers, i.e., under slow flow conditions. Modern rotating machinery operates at ever increasing surface speeds to deliver more power in smaller size units. Under these operating conditions fluid inertia effects need to be accounted for in the forced response of oil lubricated bearings, as recent experimental test data also reveal. The paper presents a finite element formulation to predict added mass coefficients in oil lubricated bearings by extending a basic formulation that already calculates the bearing stiffness and damping force coefficients. That is, a small amplitude perturbation analysis of the lubrication flow equations keeps the temporal fluid inertia effects and develops a set of equations to obtain the bearing stiffness, damping and inertia force coefficients. The method does not impose on the cost of the original formulation which makes it very attractive for ready implementation in existing software. Predictions of the computational model are benchmarked against archival test data for an oil-lubricated pressure dam bearing supporting large compressors. The comparisons show fluid inertia effects cannot be ignored for operation at high rotor speeds and with small static loads.

On the Experimental Dynamic Force Performance of a Squeeze Film Damper Supplied Through a Check Valve and Sealed With O-Rings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés ◽  
Bryan Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Excitation Frequency ◽  
Check Valve ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Single Frequency ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Dynamic Force ◽  
Viscous Damping ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Force Coefficients

Abstract In rotor-bearing systems, squeeze film dampers (SFDs) assist to reduce vibration amplitudes while traversing a critical speed and also offer a means to suppress rotor instabilities. Along with an elastic support element, SFDs are effective means to isolate a rotor from its casing. O-rings (ORs), piston rings (PRs) and side plates as end seals reduce leakage and air ingestion while amplifying the viscous damping in configurations with limited physical space. ORs also add a centering stiffness and damping to a SFD. The paper presents experiments to quantify the dynamic forced response of an O-rings sealed ends SFD (OR-SFD) lubricated with ISO VG2 oil supplied at a low pressure (0.7 bar(g)). The damper is 127 mm in diameter (D), short in axial length L = 0.2D, and the film clearance c = 0.279 mm. The lubricant flows into the film land through a mechanical check valve and exits through a single port. Upstream of the check valve, a large plenum filled with oil serves to attenuate dynamic pressure disturbances. Multiple sets of single-frequency dynamic loads, 10 Hz to 120 Hz, produce circular centered orbits with amplitudes r = 0.1c, 0.15c and 0.2c. The experimental results identify the test rig structure, ORs and SFD force coefficients; namely stiffness (K), mass (M) and viscous damping (C). The ORs coefficients are frequency independent and show a sizeable direct stiffness, KOR ∼ 50% of the test rig structure stiffness, along with a quadrature stiffness, K0∼0.26 KOR, demonstrative of material damping. The lubricated system damping coefficient equals CL = (CSFD + COR); the ORs contributing 10% to the total. The experimental SFD damping and inertia coefficients are large in physical magnitude; CSFD slightly grows with orbit size whereas MSFD is relatively constant. The added mass (MSFD) is approximately four-fold the bearing cartridge mass; hence, the test rig natural frequency drops by ∼50% once lubricated. A computational physics model predicts force coefficients that are just 10% lower than those estimated from experiments. The amplitude of measured dynamic pressures upstream of the plenum increases with excitation frequency. Unsuspectedly, during dynamic load operation, the check valve did allow for lubricant backflow into the plenum. Post-tests verification demonstrates that, under static pressure conditions, the check valve does work since it allows fluid flow in just one direction.

A Novel Bulk-Flow Model for Improved Predictions of Force Coefficients in Grooved Oil Seals Operating Eccentrically

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés ◽  
Adolfo Delgado
Keyword(s):  
Test Data ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Hydrodynamic Instability ◽  
Added Mass ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Bulk Flow ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Process Gas

Oil seals in centrifugal compressors reduce leakage of the process gas into the support bearings and ambient. Under certain operating conditions of speed and pressure, oil seals lock, becoming a source of hydrodynamic instability due to excessively large cross coupled stiffness coefficients. It is a common practice to machine circumferential grooves, breaking the seal land, to isolate shear flow induced film pressures in contiguous lands, and hence reducing the seal cross coupled stiffnesses. Published tests results for oil seal rings shows that an inner land groove, shallow or deep, does not actually reduce the cross-stiffnesses as much as conventional models predict. In addition, the tested grooved oil seals evidenced large added mass coefficients while predictive models, based on classical lubrication theory, neglect fluid inertia effects. This paper introduces a bulk-flow model for groove oil seals operating eccentrically and its solution via the finite element (FE) method. The analysis relies on an effective groove depth, different from the physical depth, which delimits the upper boundary for the squeeze film flow. Predictions of rotordynamic force coefficients are compared to published experimental force coefficients for a smooth land seal and a seal with a single inner groove with depth equaling 15 times the land clearance. The test data represent operation at 10 krpm and 70 bar supply pressure, and four journal eccentricity ratios (e/c= 0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7). Predictions from the current model agree with the test data for operation at the lowest eccentricities (e/c= 0.3) with discrepancies increasing at larger journal eccentricities. The new flow model is a significant improvement towards the accurate estimation of grooved seal cross-coupled stiffnesses and added mass coefficients; the latter was previously ignored or largely under predicted.

Model and Experimental Verification of the Dynamic Forced Performance of a Tightly Sealed Squeeze Film Damper Supplied With a Bubbly Mixture

2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés ◽  
Bonjin Koo
Keyword(s):  
Sliding Friction ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Mechanical Energy ◽  
Added Mass ◽  
Single Frequency ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Radial Clearance ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Supply Pressure

Abstract Practice and experiments with squeeze film dampers (SFDs) sealed with piston rings (PRs) show the lubricant exits through the PR slit, i.e., the gap made by the PR abutted ends when installed, forced as a jet during the portion of a rotor whirl cycle generating a positive squeeze film pressure. In the other portion of a whirl cycle, a subambient dynamic pressure ingests air into the film that mixes with the lubricant to produce a bubbly mixture. To reduce persistent air ingestion, commercial air breathing engines utilizing PRSFDs demand of a sufficiently large lubricant supply pressure (Ps), and hence a larger flow rate that is proportional to the journal squeeze velocity (vs = amplitude r × frequency of motion ω). The stringent requirement clearly limits the applicability and usefulness of SFDs. This paper presents a computational physics model for a sealed-end SFD operating with a mixture and delivers predictions benchmarked against profuse laboratory test data. The model implements a Reynolds equation adapted for a homogeneous bubbly mixture, includes temporal fluid inertia effects, and uses physics-based inlet and outlet lubricant conditions through feed holes and PR slit, respectively. In the experiments for model validation, a SFD damper, 127 mm in diameter D, film land length L = 25.4 mm (L/D = 0.2), and radial clearance c = 0.371 mm, is supplied with an air in ISO VG2 oil bubbly mixture of known gas volume fraction (GVF), zero (pure oil) to 50% in steps of 10%. The mixture supply pressure varies from Ps = 2.06 bar-g (30 psig) to 6.20 bar-g (90 psig). Located in grooves at the top and bottom of the journal, a PR and an O-ring (OR) seal the film land. The OR does not allow any oil leakage or air ingestion; hence, the supplied mixture discharges through the PR slit into a vessel submerged within a large volume of lubricant. Dynamic load tests with a single frequency ω, varying from 10 Hz to 60 Hz, produce circular centered orbits (CCO) with amplitude r = 0.2c. The measurements record the exerted forces and journal motions and an analysis delivers force coefficients, damping and inertia, representative of the exerted frequency range. The model predicts the pressure field and evolution of the GVF within the film land and, in a simulated process replicating the experimental procedure, delivers representative force coefficients. For all Ps conditions, both predictions and tests show the SFD added mass coefficients significantly decrease as the inlet GVF (βs) increases. The experimentally derived damping coefficients do not show a significant change, except for tests with the largest concentration of air (βs = 0.5). The predicted damping differs by 10% with the test derived coefficient which does not readily decrease as the inlet GVF (βs) increases. The added mass coefficients, test and predicted, decrease with βs, both being impervious to the magnitude of supply pressure. The test PRSFD shows a quadrature stiffness due to the sliding friction between the PR being pushed against the journal. An increase in supply pressure exacerbates this unique stiffness that may impair the action of the squeeze film to dissipate mechanical energy. The comprehensive test results, first of their kind, demonstrate that accurate modeling of SFDs operating with air ingestion remains difficult as the flow process and the paths of its major components (air and liquid) are rather complex.

Forced Response of a Squeeze Film Damper and Identification of Force Coefficients From Large Orbital Motions

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis San Andre´s ◽  
Oscar De Santiago
Keyword(s):  
Excitation Frequency ◽  
Air Entrainment ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Effective Length ◽  
Single Frequency ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Inertia Force ◽  
Damping Force ◽  
Squeeze Film Damper ◽  
Force Coefficients

Experimentally derived damping and inertia force coefficients from a test squeeze film damper for various dynamic load conditions are reported. Shakers exert single frequency loads and induce circular and elliptical orbits of increasing amplitudes. Measurements of the applied loads, bearing displacements and accelerations permit the identification of force coefficients for operation at three whirl frequencies (40, 50, and 60 Hz) and increasing lubricant temperatures. Measurements of film pressures reveal an early onset of air ingestion. Identified damping force coefficients agree well with predictions based on the short length bearing model only if an effective damper length is used. A published two-phase flow model for air entrainment allows the prediction of the effective damper length, and which ranges from 82% to 78% of the damper physical length as the whirl excitation frequency increases. Justifications for the effective length or reduced (flow) viscosity follow from the small through flow rate, not large enough to offset the dynamic volume changes. The measurements and analysis thus show the pervasiveness of air entrainment, whose effect increases with the amplitude and frequency of the dynamic journal motions. Identified inertia coefficients are approximately twice as large as those derived from classical theory.

First Order Perturbation Technique for Squeeze Film Dampers Executing Small Amplitude Circular Centered Orbits With Aero-Engine Application

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Hamzehlouia ◽  
Kamran Behdinan
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Distribution ◽  
Small Amplitude ◽  
Slenderness Ratio ◽  
Order Perturbation ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Zeroth Order ◽  
Flow Equations ◽  
First Order ◽  
Squeeze Film Dampers ◽  
First Order Perturbation

This work develops inertial expressions for the lubricant pressure distribution and fluid velocity components for squeeze film dampers (SFDs) executing small amplitude circular centered orbits (CCO), by applying a first order perturbation to the fluid equations. For small amplitude motions of the journal center, it is assumed that the fluid convective inertia terms are negligible relative to the unsteady (temporal) inertia terms. Firstly, a first order perturbation is applied to the pressure and velocity components in the flow equations. Subsequently, the flow equations are solved for the zeroth-order (i.e. non-inertial) velocities and the first-order (i.e. inertial) velocities. The velocity components are incorporated into the flow equations to develop separate expressions for the zeroth-order and the first order pressures. Furthermore, the pressure expressions are numerically solved by applying finite difference approximations to the equations. Finally, a simulation model is developed to determine the lubricant pressure distribution and fluid film reaction forces for different damper operating parameters, including Reynold’s number (i.e. inertia effect), journal eccentricity ratio, and bearing slenderness ratio.

scholarly journals Effects of Fluid Inertia and Turbulence on the Force Coefficients for Squeeze Film Dampers

1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. San Andre´s ◽  
J. M. Vance
Keyword(s):  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Fluid Inertia ◽  
High Eccentricity ◽  
Small Eccentricity ◽  
Inertia Effects ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Inertia Coefficient ◽  
Squeeze Film Dampers ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Large Eccentricity

The effects of fluid inertia and turbulence on the force coefficients of squeeze film dampers are investigated analytically. Both the convective and the temporal terms are included in the analysis of inertia effects. The analysis of turbulence is based on friction coefficients currently found in the literature for Poiseuille flow. The effect of fluid inertia on the magnitude of the radial direct inertia coefficient (i.e., to produce an apparent “added mass” at small eccentricity ratios, due to the temporal terms) is found to be completely reversed at large eccentricity ratios. The reversal is due entirely to the inclusion of the convective inertia terms in the analysis. Turbulence is found to produce a large effect on the direct damping coefficient at high eccentricity ratios. For the long or sealed squeeze film damper at high eccentricity ratios, the damping prediction with turbulence included is an order of magnitude higher than the laminar solution.

Analysis of Short Squeeze Film Dampers With a Central Groove

1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. San Andres
Keyword(s):  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Inertia Force ◽  
Dynamic Force ◽  
Fluid Inertia ◽  
Dynamic Flow ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Squeeze Film Damper ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Squeeze Film Dampers ◽  
Combined Action

A novel analysis for the dynamic force response of a squeeze film damper with a central feeding groove considers the dynamic flow interaction between the squeeze film lands and the feeding groove. For small amplitude centered motions and based on the short bearing model, corrected values for the damping and inertia force coefficients are determined. Correlations with existing experimental evidence is excellent. Analytical results show that the grooved-damper behaves at low frequencies as a single land damper. Dynamic force coefficients are determined to be frequency dependent. Analytical predictions show that the combined action of fluid inertia and groove volume—liquid compressibility affects the force coefficients for dynamic excitation at large frequencies.

Forced Response of a Flexible Rotor With Squeeze Film Damper Under Parametric Change

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng He ◽  
Paul E. Allaire ◽  
Saeid Dousti ◽  
Alexandrina Untaroiu
Keyword(s):  
Harmonic Balance Method ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Flexible Rotor ◽  
Fluid Inertia ◽  
Inertia Effects ◽  
Squeeze Film Damper ◽  
Vibrational Response ◽  
Parametric Change ◽  
Gyroscopic Effects

Squeeze film dampers play an important role in the dynamics of modern turbomachinery by improving vibrational response and stability. The present paper develops an effective tool for evaluating the forced response of these systems under parametric changes. A flexible rotor with multiple masses supported on a squeeze film damper at one end is investigated. The forced response of this asymmetrically supported system is obtained using the harmonic balance method with a predictor-corrector procedure. This response is examined with various parameters including unbalance forces with and without fluid inertia effects, unidirectional loads, stiffness of centering spring of the damper and the gyroscopic effects of the disks. The developed tool predicts the nonlinear jump phenomenon of the damper with large unbalance forces, indicates the present of multiple harmonics within the response with high damper eccentricity and shows the insensitivity of the damper to surrounding gyroscopic variation.

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